I just had my tub refinished. The tub was not the cast iron/porcelain but what
they sell today (18 yrs. ago actually) - it has a metal base and is covered in
something that looks like porcelain.
He had to sand off the bad places then he sprayed it with some kind of primer -
then he followed with another kind of spray on stuff. He called it polymer I
think...I know it was poly something and it wasn't hot and it wasn't just plain
paint. It had to sit three days to cure.
Anyway it looks real good. The alternative was replace tub and that meant
replacing a perfectly good tile job. Would have cost a lot of money.
Dorothy

Hi Dorothy
Sounds like an epoxy based enamel.
Should hold up just about as long as the hot stuff with no problems.
That what we used to repair culture marble vanity sinks as the hot
stuff would melt the plastic finish around the repair and it was worse
off than before we started.
TTUL
Gary

Hi Guy
Almost everyone has a cultured marble vanity these days, and they
ALWAYS self-destruct around the drain area.
Trouble is, new tops only cost about 75 bucks and up.
If you wanted to specialize in doing just these, you won't have all
the aggrivation you do as in the reglazing business, and far less
competition.
All you need is a fist sized orbital sander with a convex sanding
head, a grease pencil, two vinyl pails, and optionally a couple of
wrenches to make the work easier.
I'll be glad to fill you in on how it's done if you post back here
again, I check this newsgroup every day.
TTUL
Gary

I would like to hear how these would be refinished. I have one of
these in my home that I could tackle right now.
Thanks a lot.
On 09 Aug 2004 14:56:50 EDT, snipped-for-privacy@bbs.galilei.com.nospam (Gary V.
Deutschmann, Sr.) wrote:

Hi Guy
Because epoxy finish is not cheap we don't want to waste any by mixing
too much, so we use the following steps.
1. Fill basin with water to an aesthetic visual height. (This can be
a pool only an inch deep to just above the blemishes or the whole
basin can be filled with water.)
2. Using your grease pencil make a few marks or draw a ring just at
the water level. (This is to determine a level finish line.)
3. Drain the water from the bowl and dry.
4. Place masking tape about 3 layers thick on the marks or line.
5. Loosen or remove P-Trap for access to drain tailpiece.
6. Remove pop-up assembly from tailpiece or simply remove pop-up
lever assembly from back and plug hole with dowel. (We usually wrap a
couple of turns of electrical tape on the dowel so that it fits
snug.)(Reason: We don't want epoxy in this port or on the threads
here.)
7. Optionally, tape chrome outlet. (If not taped it will become the
color of the epoxy, which is how we usually do it.)
8. Before sanding basin we connect a shop vac to the tailpiece outlet
to collect sanding dust.
9. Using a convex faced orbital sander we first sand the rough
plastic with 250 grip wet dry sandpaper, then when cracks are cleared
up we switch to 400 grit wet dry sandpaper for the final smoothing.
10. On occasion we will do a little hand sanding, but not often.
11. Remove shop vac and hang a small bucket under the tailpiece. (It
can hang from the pop-up threaded fitting.)
12. Using a cotton rag and 91% alcohol wipe out the inside of the
basin.
13. It takes about 4 ounces of epoxy to do a shallow resurfacing and
about 8 to 10 ounces to do the whole basin. We use a paper cup (not
styrofoam as it will melt) to mix the two part enamel. We try to
match the base color as closely as possible or go with snow white
epoxy finish as the alternative.
14. The epoxy is poured into the basin starting at the masking tape
and allowed to drain out the drain into the waste bucket. With a
little practice you will quickly learn how much to pour so as not to
waste too much. Some will puddle by the drain, this is normal.
(After it hardens you won't have water standing in the sink like you
used to before refinishing.)
15. Trying to match the translucent marbling with opaque epoxy is
nearly impossible. But if you want to try it, use some epoxy about 2
shades darker of what you have left and a feather to add some marbling
effect to the finish. But honestly, a solid color looks fine in the
majority of cases. Almost like a separate bowl and top were made that
way.
16. As soon as the epoxy just begins to set up and harden, remove the
masking tape slowly pulling upward. (This will allow the taped edge to
settle and smoothen out.)
17. Then, before the epoxy sets up too hard, you want to remove the
dowel from the pop-up port. (You WANT to do this at this time so it
does not become epoxied into the pop-up port.)
18. Finally, remove your catch pail and trim any hanging drips from
the tailpiece.
19. I now usually clean up, put my tools (except the wrenches) away
giving time for the epoxy to really harden well before reinstalling
the pop-up assembly and P-Trap. (You can really mess up a nice job if
you allow the tailpiece to twist while reinstalling the compression
fittings on the P-Trap, so be careful about doing this, or if you can,
wait an hour before installing the P-Trap.
20. A coat of gel-gloss polish over the existing part of the basin
helps to restore the gloss so it blends closer to the refinished
surface shine. The sink can normally be used after 1 hour.
Notes:
If you use a vinyl bucket, the epoxy can usually be peeled from it.
Instead of paper cups, you could use vinyl, but they are often too
rigid and small to be able to peel the epoxy, so we normally use paper
cups.
Epoxy enamel is fairly thick to start with, we have never had to place
a second coat in a standard bathroom sink. However, if you attempt to
recolor porcelain wall fixtures, often two coats will be required.
If you are coating something that will normally be filled with water
all the time, let the epoxy dry at least 24 hours before filling the
device.
We normally replace the nylon compression fittings when reglazing
vanity sinks.
Any palm sized orbital sander can be turned into a convex faced sander
by building up the foam pad with decreasing sized thin hi-density foam
pads. The commercial sander has a solid block of foam covered by a
piece of rubber similar to an old car innertube but made for the
sander. The curvature of the sander face is not great, just enough to
work on the curved surfaces inside of a sink basin. Before we had
these sanders, we used softball size rubber balls to hold the
sandpaper and did the sanding by hand.
On the occasion that you get a ripple run in the paint, a piece of
masking tape layed on the run and quickly pulled up will often
eliminate it while the epoxy is still flowing.
The real pain is when the sink was not clean enough and some soap
remained in the area where a crack was and the epoxy avoids this area
like the plague. When we hit this, we would simply wipe the avoided
area with acetone, and repour a little more epoxy from the taped area
so it now flows across this area. BUT, this has to be done BEFORE the
epoxy begins to set, preferably while it is still in the flow stage of
the operation. So keep your eye open for one of these areas.
If you miss it, it's no big deal, just clean it as mentioned then
recoat the whole sink again to it comes out uniformly smooth.
There will be times when nothing seems to go right and everything goes
wrong. Don't worry, just let the epoxy harden for 24 hours, then
lightly sand and clean the basin and do it over again and it should
take this time with no problems since it now has an epoxy base.
I have rarely hit the nothing seems to go right, but the times I have,
it has been sinks made of structured polycarbonate, which are fairly
rare to run across.
The surface can be redone without removing the P-Trap, but requires a
wax plug and siphon that connects to a sealed catch can then to the
vacuum. The chances of messing up a great job using this method is
increased exponentially because you are working around still wet
enamel.
Doing flat surfaces and fixtures requires the building of a trough at
the bottom and a catch basin. Royal mess if there is a leak in your
trough assembly or you overflow your catch basin. We had to use this
method to solar coat existing store windows to protect displays from
sun damage.
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!
TTUL
Gary
the guy upstairs <.> verbositized:

Gary,
I really want to thank you for all the time you spent on your posting.
It is a mountain of work and much more than I had expected. I'm going
to take my time and based on what you wrote, learn how to do this
thing.
Again, thanks a lot.
Guy.
On 11 Aug 2004 13:49:19 EDT, snipped-for-privacy@bbs.galilei.com.nospam (Gary V.
Deutschmann, Sr.) wrote:

Hi Guy
Of any recoating project in bathrooms, it is one of the easiest.
Sounds a lot harder than it really is once you get the hang of it.
I just tried to cover every single step and the what if's that you
would rarely encounter very often.
It's like trying to paint trim if someone used silicone caulk and your
working with latex paint, if you catch my drift.
Latex paint will not stick to silicone caulking!
There is an easier way too, but wastes products.
Quick and easy though.
Close the drain, fill with Acetone to just above the cracks and let
sit for 15 minutes. Drain the acetone and let dry, about 5 minutes.
Remove the pop-up, install wax plug to just under flush with sink
outlet.
Pour in epoxy enamel and let sit 2 minutes, pop the wax plug. The
acetone in the trap will dilute the epoxy so it won't set in the
drainpipe.
In 15 minutes or so run hot water in the sink to wash out the trap.
If you still see lines where the cracks used to be, pour about 4
ounces of acetone in the trap trying not to get any on the epoxy
finish and use another wax plug and repeat the epoxy enamel part
again. This should make it thick enough you no longer see any cracks
or lines from them.
I don't recommend this method, but it works OK for shallow repairs.
TTUL
Gary

25+ years of doing home renovations from skid row to historic
mansions!
Some things you just pick up by seeing what products are available to
do what with.
Other things you just learn by trying different approaches to similar
problems in places where it really doesn't matter if it's not perfect,
such as in a rental house.
When it was available, I made heavy use of Targinol (pour chip
flooring) only I eliminated the chips and added whatever I wanted for
the base. I've used everything from brown paper sacks which looked
like flagstone when finished, to 45s and LP records in rec rooms.
To repair the proprietary part of lower door and window frames that
rotted out, we would use polyester resin to rebuild the rotted out
areas using fiberglass and polyester until solid so it would never
deteriorate again. Doing these types of repair does have a fairly
large learning curve in order to master it.
A feat that I had to do quite often was to put a 5 foot bathtub into a
4 foot space after reducing that space down to 3-1/2 feet to cover the
exposed 6 inch plumbing vents.
Here is an example: http://archimedes.galilei.com/raiar/bath
look for the .html and open it from the index, that will pull
everything together into one document for you.
Nothing is impossible, it just takes figuring out a way to do it is
all! EXCEPT, taking artist drawings and turning them into solid
objects. Too many ways to fool the eye! Meaning it is possible to
draw on paper what is impossible to exist in 3D.
TTUL
Gary

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